Joan Houlehen Graphics

Die-Cut Holiday Decorations

As a little girl, Houlehen remembers spending hours cutting paper dolls. "Now when I cut I don't need a form," she said. Most of her cutting is done while she stands at her work table in her small, colorful studio, to the rear of her home. Amazingly, she cuts and trims, but doesn't sketch or draw first, she just forms tiny crosses, windows and shooting stars perfectly and precisely with her tiny scissors. For her, all of her picture-perfect designs, "look more complicated than they are".

A group of angels and round madonna and child in her yard are just several of the beautiful decorations, three-dimensional ornaments and Christmas cards, she has paper cut for nearly 20 years. The cards are either standing ones or can be used as ornaments. Once created in paper, the designs are water-cut or die-cut.